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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Who Are These People in Orange T-Shirts in the Streets of New York?

Dear Korean,

I was practicing violin today, minding my own business, when this strange Asian college kid flung open the door to my practice room and asked if I wanted to volunteer for the Bible Crusade. Apparently this Korean pastor travels around the world holding these sermon sessions, and recruit local musicians wherever they go. I refused because I was busy next week and the week after, but the kid was persistent. I finally managed to shoo him away.

In fact, I saw this Bible Crusade thing before. They are everywhere in New York somehow, wearing orange shirts, handing out flyers and talking about pastor Park Ock Soo. What the hell is this stuff?

And also, can you pick up some tofu on the way home? We (which means you) are making김치찌개 tonight. I love you!

The Korean Fiancée

The Korean loves you too honey. That’s why your question jumps ahead of people who had been waiting for more than a year. (This question is not made up, by the way. The Korean Fiancée actually called and demanded that the Korean answer this question right away.)

First, a full disclosure: The Korean is a Presbyterian, but he did not really attend any church in Korea. He only started attending church in the U.S.

At any rate, the Korean himself got curious as well. He is sure that other New York-based readers have seen this stuff as well. Mostly Asian (almost certainly Korean, based on their looks) flyer-givers in orange shirt, taking over corners and muttering something about “Bible Crusade” and pastor Ock-Soo Park. In fact, the Korean sees these guys about once in two weeks or so on the way to work. So what the hell is this?

These are the kind of guys that the Korean is talking about.

(Image was edited to protect privacy, although it was available via Google.)
(Source withheld for obvious reasons.)

The simple answer is – these guys belong to an offshoot of Christianity that probably deserves the term “cult”. They are generally referred to in Korea as “Saviorists” (구원파), although their precise name is Association of Korean Christian Baptists (대한예수교침례회). In contrast, the name of the official Baptist organization is The Korea Baptist Convention. (기독교 한국 침례회) Christian Heresy Counseling Center, run by the Christian Council of Korea (which encompasses most Protestant faiths such as Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, etc.,) has decreed that Saviorists are heretics. (The website of the Heresy Counsel Center also has a fascinating list and articles about those Christian sects that it considers heretics.)

Apparently, Saviorist movement started in the 1960s, when an American missionary named Dick York made Mr. Park a pastor through an informal mission. Mr. Park did not attend any established seminary. According to Mr. Park, Mr. York was a part of Shield of Faith Mission International. (Mr. York’s homepage is here.) The distinctive point in the Saviorist creed is that once you are saved by Christ, you no longer need to repent for your sins – because you are saved already. And the flip side of that logic is that if you continue admitting that you are a sinner (something that most Christians do every Sunday) you make yourself a sinner.

But the Korean does not really care about the finer points of theology. (Actually he does, but this post is not about that.) The term “cult” is deserved based not on faith, but on actions. So what about Saviorists that makes the Korean comfortable to call them a cult? Certainly, hitting up practice rooms around New York to recruit “volunteer” musicians sounds like a cult. (The Korean Fiancée spoke with her musician friends, and apparently these people went as far out as SUNY Stony Brook to recruit musicians.) The aggressive flyering (not just in Korea, but in New York!) feels like a cult.

But most intriguingly, they are implicated in the most classic cult behavior – mass suicide.

How are the people in orange connected to one of the most sensational news stories in Korea of the late 1980s? More after the jump.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
August 29, 1987.

The police was investigating a strange case. One couple in their 50s had seven children, all of whom worked at a company called Five Seas, Ltd. (오대양 주식회사). The company borrowed $500,000 (assuming $1 = KRW 1,000, a HUGE amount of money in 1987,) from the parents. Five Seas company only paid them the interest without paying the principal. When the parents went to the company to demand the money to be repaid, a number of company employees ganged up and physically assaulted them, causing serious injury.

Five Seas company represented itself as a mid-size company with an emphasis for employee welfare. Its business apparently was exporting hand-made crafts. The company also established day care center and nursing homes for its employees.

The police arrested eleven employees of the company, but a number of key employees ran off and disappeared. Later, the police received a tip that the employees were hiding in a company facility in Yong-In, Gyeonggi-do. On August 29, 1987, the police raided the facility. The police found 49 women and children at the facility, but not the top company officers they were looking for. But one female employee noticed that the ceiling of a room was caving in, unlike the way it was before. She notified another employee, and they climbed up to the attic on top of the room.

In the attic, there were 32 dead bodies. Most of them were found with their hands tied up and choked with a rope, and three men (presumably the ones who killed all others) hanged themselves.

This is now a distant memory in Korea, but in 1987 it was a sensation termed “Five Seas Incident” (오대양 사건). At the time, the police investigation revealed that Five Seas company was not a real company at all, but a cult led by a woman named Park Soon-Ja (who was one of the dead, along with her two sons and a daughter.) Park preached that the end was near, and they eventually had to offer themselves to god. Five Seas company recklessly borrowed money, both by posing as a legitimate company as well as by extorting its members. Five Seas cult ranked its members based on how much money they could bring into the cult, both with their own funds as well as whatever they could beg, borrow or steal.

Cult leader Park Soon-Ja (center) with her son (second from the left),

after winning a prize in a handcraft contest. Click the source for many more pictures related to this case. (Source)

The police concluded that it was a mass suicide, but questions remained. Among them was: one of the key officers who practically ran the company (as far as it was posing as a real company) was missing. His whereabouts would be revealed four years later. On July 10, 1991, five former members of the Five Seas company came to the police, and confessed that prior to the mass suicide, they killed the missing key officer and one other person for “breaking the rules.” Sure enough, the police was able to recover two bodies from where the five led them. When asked why they came forward, they replied that their conscience compelled them to.

Former Five Seas members re-constructing the crime scene in 1991 (Source)

The police re-opened investigation to retrace the incident from the beginning and address all outstanding questions, such as: Was this really religiously motivated suicide, or did someone cause the death of the 32 for any other reason? Can we seriously believe that the murders who confessed that after four years because their conscience caught up to them? And why did the key officer of the Five Seas company have to be killed?

The last question provided the start of the thread that the police pursued. The key officer was running the company, which means he was in charge of the company’s money. The police reconstructed how much money the Five Seas company collected, and it was estimated to be up to $ 17 million (assuming $1 = KRW 1,000) – an astronomical sum in late 1980s Korea. Then the next logical question is: where did the money go?

This is where the link between the Five Seas company and the Saviorists began to emerge. Bulk of the money was traced to a company called Semo Corporation, led by a man named Yoo Byeong-Eon (유병언) whose side job was to be a pastor for a Saviorist church. (Does the name sound familiar?)

This was a big deal at the time, because Semo Corporation was a big company, mostly known for importing the tour cruise boats on the Han River in Seoul. (The Korean remembers riding those boats as well.) The investigation further revealed that Park Soon-Ja (the cult leader of the Five Seas) and most of her followers were originally from Yoo’s church.

However, the investigation only concluded this much – Yoo was actually responsible for the former Five Seas murders to come forward, in order to distract the growing attention toward the tie between Five Seas and the Saviorist church. The 32 people indeed committed suicide, because there was no forensic evidence to suggest that they were murdered. However, Yoo was nonetheless indicted for fraud as he raised money from his followers in the Saviorist church for the purpose of doing “god’s work,” then proceeded to use that money for his company. He served four years in prison.

Now, back to the original point of this post – how does Park Ock-Soo fit into all this? As it turns out, like Park Ock-Soo, Yoo Byeong-Eon never attended a seminary either. Instead, Yoo also attended the makeshift school set up by Dick York and the Shield of Faith Mission International, alongside Park.

This is about as much as the Korean could gather from online research. No one knows for certain how deeply the Saviorists were involved in the Five Seas mass suicide (other than what is described above,) and it is not even clear whether Park Ock-Soo’s group is necessarily the same as Yoo Byeong-Eon’s group, since cults are usually a personality-driven affair. And of course, Park’s followers vigorously deny any such involvement by Park in Five Seas incident. Park himself stated that "Dick York is a great man. It would not be right if all of his students are criticized because one of them did wrong."

At any rate, this whole thing is simply full of intrigue.

Got a question or comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

41 comments:

Thank you Korean (and Korean Fiancée!) for a fascinating post. My brother is a Methodist pastor (with a graduate degree from Asbury Theological Seminary, thank you very much!) and these types of organizations only further blacken legitimate Christian churches in the eyes of non-believers.

Wow... I've never seen any orange-shirted people like that, but now that I know they're part of that Odaeyang cult (I do remember that!), I'd run the other way. In fact, I might even alert someone. In the international dorm in which I live, there were some cult-like groups who got past the main entrance (which requires a key card issued to residents) and were doing their thing on the various floors, including putting up fliers — all in Korean. In fact, I think it was because of them that the housing authorities instigated rules where fliers would be taken down if they were entirely (or mostly?) in a language other than English.

Eek what the hell is it with Fundie Xian preachers? They are all over China too. Whenever I fly to HK somebody always trys to convert me in the airport.

I ignore them, except this weekend when I was completely bored in Seoul and decided to go to a Church called OEM in Sei-yo Bingo. Whereby there were loads of white people there and a large number of Koreans too (I was the fake Korean Simon's evil accomplice). Yes we were that bored...

It was sort of like a Noribang combined with damnation where the pastor angrilly showered us with spit at out evil.

Simon however liked to mess with this pastor and me and Simon were complete frauds in Seoyo Bingo yet curiously we were the only people to put 10000 won notes on the collection plates.

The post praying for sessions were creepy where 10 people put their hands on somebody to give them their power. I had to perform seveal bullet time matrix style dodges to get out of that situation as a fraud I would have burst into flames.

We stopped going namely as Simon peeved the pastor off so much that he was on the verge of stabbing us in the faces.

Oh happy days...

I bet quite a few people who visit ATK saw me and Simon there too and can vent their wrath at me.

Nutter fundamentalists - just when you thought the world couldn't hold more, there's this group. I didn't know about the 1987 event that preceded Heaven'Gate, but it looks like these folks are heartily imbibing the Kool-Aid that this cult is dishing out.

I wouldn't call them fundamentalists. this is a rather twisted version I think of the fundamental Christian doctrines.I've seen the orange shirts around Atlanta as well though never bothered to actually read any flyers they pushed at me.

Oh sweet mercy. I know Dick York rather well. He is close friends with my dad, who by the way is on the board of SFMI. I grew up very deeply entwined in that culture, and have now left it. I had no idea about all this though. Whoa.

remember, Jesus' followers (the apostles) were considered a cult in their life time from the world.

there is NOTHING pastor park makes us do.. He only wants God to change our hearts on the matter and live by faith, nothing else.. i used to show up drunk and high (and much worst like hitting on the korean/thai short terms, smoking a guy i never knew out, and a korean i got high, and fucked a girl whose first time to a "bible crusaide" type event) to the church in dallas, and they wanted to kick me out, because i told them i didn't have salvation. Not faith completely that i was holy, and without sin.. so they did not kick me out.. then 6 months later, they asked if i got salvation, and faith in Jesus with the blood and how he bore my sins on the cross.. i believed it and told them i had salvation, and am holy. then they kicked me out later that week.. and it was such a blessing to be kicked out because then i got to see how truely precious the church is (by the way the bible does talk about kicking a brother out of church in 2nd Corinthians), when i asked for how long or when i can come back? i was told "its in Gods hands".. I had faith in my heart God will let me know by a sign, and i had a sign 1 month later, and i took it as God telling me to come back..

now 1 year later, my life is completely changed.. from a druggy, thats been arrested 5 times, to a teacher, where a student told me not to ever leave, being called and being made into something.. and it all started by acknowleging how evil i am without God and how much i NEEEEEEED the grace of God.. and God began to work.

This Church is NOTHING like the persecution it recieves on the internet.. it reminds me of the pharasses percecuting Jesus and the persecution the apostles received in the book of Acts by the people with a harden/high heart.

I hate these guys with a passion. I wish I could sweep them off the streets. If it was up to me, I'd put these guys in jail and try to brainwash them into a normal state of mind. Too bad I'm not Kim-Jong-Il.

Why do Koreans(and Chinese) seem to be so attracted to extreme forms of Christianity? It's confounding to me. Must be something in the blood.

I thought i would not find anything about that GNM thing in english... mmm I had bad xperiences attending this organization, because more than a church it seems to be that... didn't experience all the gospel teachings... cause I went most for the IYF thing... x.x and it is just like a kind of "school" for teaching and preparing you for the church...a place where all the "no saved" youth are receivedanyway... since the very beginning this seemed to be kinda weird to me, maybe because their teachings and way to live are plenty of traditional Korean culture (thank to Ock soo Park perhaps...), what is by far different from occidental culture...(eg. if you wanna get married, the pastor finds you the "correct" husband/wife, the one who is chosen by God, and you can't deny to the desire of your pastor cause he's like a God's hand touched man...so you will be denying the desire of God as well... and so on)i don't attend the church nor IYF for about 8 months... i must tell that i agree with some things i was taught there... at least thank to them i go back to the path of our Lord... but there are many others...more than the good one ones, that i will never understand...>.<a friend who stayed there for a month more than me told me that in her last week (the one of preparation for Good News Coorp, the program that sends you to another country anywhere in world, after attending the World Camp), she finally ended to disappoint herself of all the GNM and IYF thing... in her words..."there seem to be a difference between the saved and no saved people", a difference that they make always, when they preach, and specially in the way they behave... so the trate you recieve depends of how saved you are, in fact how saved they think you are...

If only I had read this post weeks ago.. IYF posted Camp English flyers all over my campus at hunter college, ny. To college kids looking for volunteer opportunities, $300 dollars to teach a short English workshop in Mexico sounded great. I checked the website and most sources are positive about the organization. I called for information and they were so nice and welcoming on the phone and via email. It wasn't until after the busride to Dallas, Tx that they gave us paperwork to sign absilving the organization of legal responsibility for us. And then told us we couldn't leave the hotel premises, told the hotel the shuttles were off limits to our group, fed us small portions of non-nutritious food (providing no veggie alternative) forcing me to eat pickled cabbage and rice for nearly every meal for three days before my father bought a plane ticket home for me. The Mind Lectures were hogwash. ” man's thoughts, desires and heart are evil and will lead him to stray from God.” ” one needs to drop one's ego, humble oneself to god, open your heart and accept pastor park's interpretation to the bible because you cannot trust yourself, satan is corrupting your heart and mind” if that is not brain washing wth is?

Poor you. If you left the hotel premises, who knows what could happen to you, and then how would IYF tell your parents? IYF had your saftey in their best interests; please don't get mad. ^-^As for food...you have to understand, they're Korean. Koreans traditionally eat rice and pickled cabbage (kimchi). Once you've adjusted to its tastes, you'll love kimchi(according to my mom XD). You could've gotten seconds, and I'm sure they served meat and fruits and salads. And if you wanted, you could've gotten seconds, I'm pretty sure. Or wait until the lunch servers leave and scoop some more rice into your plate. I don't know, something. xDAnd if the hotel shuttles are off limits, there must be a good reason. The groups were made partly so they could keep tabs on everyone, so no one's left behind at the hotel on departing day and stuff.

Did you go to this Intercontinental Hotel for Dallas? I think many people hated that year. xD It's not usually like that, but it just happened to be like that for that one year. Apologies. =\You should come to NY World Camp with us in the fall(usually east coast people, LA church attended this time around though, so it's not impossible). NY camp's pretty fun. =D

That true Qianmo Kathleen Chen ... i went there in Dallas, TX, i feel so bad because i have to wake up early, and eat korean food, and pay $200 hotel. i was very mad at the beginning, but in the end, i was very happy , i met jesus there.. and he change me and i receive salvation in Dallas, Tx. my name is already in heaven . :) ..true good new in IYF. god with IYF. and god will be with them forever and this i pray, in the name of jesus. :)

I'm a student, really pushed into this church. But the Good News Mission, really seeming like a cult, is in fact not a cult. How is it a cult, first of all. In no way at all is it a cult. You guys call it a cult, but thanks to the church, my mama's saved. I'm currently in some training in this church, and I also wish for all of my family to be changed. [I have lots of family controversy] I also wish especially my Dad (out in the world) to change. You guys can keep calling our church a "Korean Cult". No matter what you call it, It's still something dear to me. For those of you with that kind of mindset, I really hope you may actually talk with someone from our mission.

I did talk with someone from your mission. I talked to all kinds of pastors when I was cheated into going to the Korean Experience Program for this "church". Ock Soo Park isn't a pastor to GNM, he is your GOD. His word is final. Arranged marriages, and tricking young students into going on these "volunteer" trips abroad is what CULTS do to gain members.

Core Baptist belief is "the priesthood of the believer" In Peter's words: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation." II Peter 1:20. The believer must never blindly follow any man, but God only. Of course, God gives preachers and teachers to shepherd us, but also put the Bible into our hands to test those preachers. As Martin Luther said, "sola scriptura".

Thank you for your post. I was tricked into a Korean Experience Program for this church. They advertised this program as a cheap way to go to Korea and volunteer, teach english, and experience Korean culture. We did none of that. We DID experience 6+ HOURS of sermons with pastors telling us how evil we are if we don't believe in Ock Soo Park's word. We DID sleep 20+ to a room (many on the floor), forced to take cold showers, and forced to clean the church we stayed in. It was a horrible time for me. I was lied to. Hopefully, its members will realize that Ock Soo Park is not a legit Pastor. He puts himself as God.

This article is a bit creepy and makes this church out to be way more negative than it really is.

I've had personal experience with this church. My girlfriend grew up in this church. She doesn't really like it even so, but her mom forces her to attend every church and every camp.

Anyways, I followed my girlfriend to the Dallas camp someone mentioned above earlier (this world sure is small)..it was horrible.. Both my girlfriend and I wanted to leave but my girlfriend's mom wouldn't let her so we stayed. And they definitely lied about what would be happening, they call it Mind lecture but it's just a pastor telling you how evil you are.

But anyways, I don't really think of it as a cult. Just a group of people who are a little too fanatical about their beliefs - and also, I did get the vibe that pastor ock soo park is a GOD to these people rather than a pastor - but I didn't see anything negative coming out of this. None of the IYF volunteers looked abused, or brainwashed, they were all pretty normal, RELIGIOUS, people. My girlfriend grew UP in this culture and she's perfectly normal.

Okay a month later, I take back what they said. These people are controlling as hell, they keep calling me and texting me and telling me to come back after I went to the church a few times with my girlfriend. My girlfriend told me she doesn't want to go to the local church anymore but she's afraid her mom will disown her if she does. For now, we've both been putting the pastors (and their wives) on our blocklist, but we'll see.

Stay away from this group, who do they think they are...sorry, this sounds racist, but they're implying that a random UNEDUCATED Korean man (Ock soo park) can come up with the "true" gospel whereas hundreds of years of other theologists failed?? He doesn't claim to be a prophet but that's how others regard him for sure.

To read the Bible, you need an open mind and heart. Paster Ock Soo Park read it and accepted everything in the Bible, but other theologists have failed because they let their own thoughts and opinions get in the way. They weren't able to completely receive the Bible the way it was.

There was this one man who lived in our church for a while with his family before continuing on his way to Korea. He was a pastor who graduated from a theology school, and for years he struggled with his sin-until he met with the church.

And who considers Pastor Ock Soo Park to be a prophet? Actually, what do you consider a prophet to be? -.-

I cannot raise mere criticisms unless I can witness the facts and support them with strong evidence. In this sense, I need clarification about some practices that IYF includes in its programs (this question is addressed to anybody here belonging or having belonged to this organization, please I require your urgent response):

- Yoga is a practice of Eastern cultures that is related to the new world order which is completely outside Jesus Christ's teachings. Now my question is, why does IYF encourage practicing Yoga to its young volunteers?- I heard that young people in Korea have links with the UN. What kind of links do they have? What work do they perform for the UN?- What are the sources of funding IYF currently has?- What is the main purpose of the world camps you regularly organize? Why do you include cultural dances from several countries? In what ways does that relate to the preaching of the Gospel?

Hello, I am a volunteer in IYF. In response to your first question: I have never seen and heard about yoga, at least here in Brazil, in our NGO.Your second question, sorry, but I do not know what it means un.Third question: IYF was established for young people to open their hearts to other young people around the world through the Word of God.Your last question: The dances are practiced in World Camps for unity among these young people so they can change (for the better, of course) and to show that heart to the audience. So people also open their hearts to hear the Word of the Bible. Camps are also made for people with an interest in Jesus, or just interested in the union with young people and people from other countries. Through these camps people receive salvation.I hope I helped.PS: I am 15 years old and do not write English very well.

Well friends! I know one thing for sure that I was a sinner and now am reckon by God as righteous by Jesus' accomplised work 2000 years ago..BLESSED are those preach good tidings! I came to KNOW THE TRUTH FROM ONE WHO HAVE THE TRUTH, PASTOR OCK SOO PARK. If anyone call him a cult he is not a BELIEVER..HE PREACHES THE SAME GOSPEL AS MARTIN LUTHER, JOHN WESLEY, D L MOODY..

I don't need to meet that "pastor" Park, it's useless to "justify" that twisted reading of the Bible. Some friends and I were critized and received many attacks from many unknown members of IYF, just because we don't agree to their mind readings and posting about the dangers of GNM and IYF. Listen, we did open hearts, but what did we receive, that we were talking with our thoughts, we have never meet Christ, we are closed-hearted, rubbish! How in the world I can accept a church where everybody centers on Ock So Park's words, it is like his way of interpretation was pure golden, sorry but you guys are wrong, no man in the world is perfect,nor the best preachers in the world, we are dust at the end, and the day Park turns into dust, I'm pretty sure you'll all go whining just like when Kim Jong-Il passed away.A real church cannot arrange marriages, cannot send anyone as a "missioner", mustn't preach gospel with kpop, mustn't mock with the ex-members and ex-pastors.

Konata, we preach we are evil continually without God.. but with God we are perfect, holy, righteous.

Through faith, we are made perfect.. thats the key word, by faith.. our sins are written, actually engraved, in 2 places.. one the horns of the tabernacle in heaven, and then second place is in our hearts. (Jeremiah 17:1)

Jesus covered the sins that are written on the horns in tabernacle in heaven, by his blood.

and by faith in our hearts in that, our sins in our heart are washed away also.

read Hebrews chapter 10.

trust me, this is the true gospel. we can discuss it more with open hearts on each other, if you'd like.

Yes. A fascinating post. Except...Pastor Ock Soo Park did not tell people to offer themselves up, at least not in the way the Five Seas people interpreted it. "A lot of the description was lifted from the case file in the National Archives of Korea"(concerning the hangings/murders) because they were not true, unless you're talking about the gory details. @_@In fact, Pastor Park is against people sacrificing to God, since Jesus had already made that sacrifice, dying for our sins.Pastor Park is in no way affiliated with the "Five Seas Company". He is with the IYF and the Good News Churches, and they are doing wonderful things like providing medical care in Africa and resolving conflicts by lighting up peoples' hearts. One time, Pastor Park even repaired the relationship between an official in Africa and his daughter, who had attempted suicide a couple of times before. Even the meeting wasn't easy. The daughter had shut herself into her room, and her father had to beg her to come out for at least 30 minutes before she grudgingly opened the door.And something tells me you haven't seen the Christmas Cantata yet. You should really watch it; it's truly a beautiful and graceful performance. No cult weirdo would be able to prepare such a stage; only through God is it possible.

Please actually attend/witness the works of the mission and discover the heart of IYF before you bash Pastor Ock Soo Park with this false information.

This article and most of the comments in here are highly misleading and have a lot of fallacy. I have attended many mind lectures of Pastor Ock Soo park and I have never heard him glorify himself or intend to acquire wealth from his flock like many pastor's I know. I have never heard any of those volunteers call themselves saviors [referring to them as saviorists is just sad]. This people are not a cult, I have met many and even volunteered in one of the world camps. It was an awesome experience which helped me learn a lot about the gospel. All they do is help people to live according to the bible, that is what it means to throw away your thoughts. It is far from being brainwashed. All these accusations are very unfortunate because these group of people are only concerned about spreading the gospel of Grace apart from works just like apostle Paul preached about in the bible.

@rex You may have some true about that Park doesn't glorify himself (I proved too) but what happens in his mind readings he definitely put his own thoughts in 3 main words: Satan, world of the heart, thoughts; when we preached about Noah, Adam and Eve, David, Paul (the main characters that he constantly talks about), he is struggling how to convince us on how we are (were) evil, but what happens about talking about the social problems, and some areas that we need to change in our personality? They lack of real interpretation, and sadly many pastors disapprove his way interpret the Bible. Maybe someone who is Catholic or didn't care about having a religious life would get and learn easily the first divine thing he may listen, and it does happen, it's like a blank tablet (no doctrine) where you can write anything, and that content will prevail, no matter if it's for goodness or temptation, but it's the first word of God you may receive. What really annoys us is that when we question, deny, confront or tell their truth, they defend themselves with Romans 3:13-15, in fact is a biblical way to insult the 'mundanes' and many others passages to blame them as Satan's puppet, you will end as Uzah, God would never listen to you, and so on. It's so sickening how you find passages to insult and think that you (from Ps Park) have always the truth, and the rest of churches are wrong. In fact, many Korean churches stated IYF/GNM as heretical, and this is not a lie

Like so many things in the Internet, the link to the National Archives has moved. If you're neurotic, or just in the mood to update a link, Your Reader would be grateful (even if he hardly knows any written Korean, and can only slowly read Hangul):

(A lot of the description was lifted from the case file in the National Archives of Korea.)

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The Korean is a Korean American living in Washington D.C. / Northern Virginia. He lived in Seoul until he was 16, then moved to Los Angeles area. The Korean refers to himself in the third person because he thinks it sounds cool.